All posts tagged Thom Yorke

Earlier this week, Thom Yorke posted some mysterious updates from what was presumed to be the Radiohead studio – but he clearly had something else in mind. In a surprise move that rivals Beyonce and U2, Yorke released a brand new studio album called “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” via BitTorrent, where people can purchase the “bundle” for the relatively low price of $6.00. He’s giving away the first track, “Brain in a Bottle” for those not convinced that a Yorke solo record is something to plunk down for.

In a note that Yorke and longtime producer Nigel Godrich sent out to press this morning, they said this method is an experiment in distribution to see if the “general public can get their head around.”

“The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or ‘cloud’ malarkey,” they wrote. Read More »

If Thom Yorke’s cryptic tweets are anything to go by – and for any obsessive, they most certainly are – the band is currently in the studio doing overdubs on material that would be for their 9th studio album and the follow-up to 2011’s “King of Limbs.”

If this is indeed true, it would affirm what Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood told the BBC earlier this year — that the band was going to reconvene in September. Read More »

Ever wonder how much an artist gets every time you click their song on services like Spotify?

The Swedish streaming-music provider is looking to provide some answers amid continued debate over whether artists and music rights holders get a fair shake from their business model.

Spotify on Tuesday unleashed a load of data, revealing that each time a user pays for a song, rights holders are paid between $0.006 and $0.0084. Over the course of 2013, the company says it will have paid $500 million in royalties, representing half of the $1 billion Spotify sent to rights holders since setting up shop in 2008.

The stats were unveiled as part of a new Spotify Artists webpage, a site where rights holders can access analytics tool to track their performance on the streaming-music platform.

Spotify has been a lead player in the growth of streaming music, with revenue more than doubling in 2012 to $590 million and its user base growing well in excess of 24 million , at least 6 million of which are paying clients. As this part of the industry grows, concern over compensation for the music makers has expanded.

This was a hot issue over the summer, when artists like Thom Yorkefrom Radiohead called for a boycott of the service over allegedly unfair payment practices. Some of Yorke’s music was pulled, although Radiohead music remained. Read More »

In response to the action yesterday by Atoms for Peace members Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich in which they removed the band’s 2013 album “Amok,” as well as some other related recordings, from the music-streaming service Spotify, the company today issued a statement in which it claims it’s “having a hugely positive effect on artists and new music.”

It wrote: “Spotify’s goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music. We want to help artists connect with their fans, find new audiences, grow their fan base and make a living from the music we all love. Read More »

Saying they are defending the rights of new and emerging recording artists, Thom Yorke and Atoms for Peace have removed their tracks from Spotify, the commercial music streaming service.

Best known for his work with Radiohead, Yorke pulled his 2006 solo album “The Eraser” while the band Atoms for Peace, which Yorke leads, took down their ’13 disk “Amok.” As of earlier this afternoon, both tracks from Yorke’s ’09 two-sided single “The Hollow Earth” and “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses” are still available on the service, as are some of his remixes and guest appearances.

“Thanks for coming all the way out here,” Thom Yorke said last night to his sold-out audience. “Wherever this may be.”

Apparently the Radiohead front man didn’t know–or didn’t care–that he was in the home arena of the New Jersey Devils, the hockey team currently in a fight against the L.A. Kings for the Stanley Cup. The teams will be in Newark, N.J., Saturday for game two of the series, but until then the Prudential Center belongs to Radiohead.

The band opened the first of two shows there with the cushiony shuffle of “Bloom,” from its “King of Limbs” album. A crop of cameras and phones popped up in the crowd, and the glow of these little screens matched the aqua-marine tones washing across the big video displays surrounding the band. Read More »

Thom Yorke and Atoms for Peace — the Radiohead frontman’s side project — made a two-night stop at New York’s Roseland Ballroom.

On the second night on Tuesday, the band coursed through several tracks off Yorke’s 2006 solo album, “The Eraser” (including the title track as the set opener) and a handful of Radiohead songs (“Everything In Its Right Place,” “Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury & Executioner)”). There was a brief interlude of Yorke alone and acoustic, during which he played a delicate, pared-down rendition of Miracle Legion’s “All for the Best,” a song he previously covered for “Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy.” Read More »

Radiohead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke will tour U.S. major markets in April with the band he introduced in October. Now called Atoms for Peace – the band had been using a series of question marks as its name – the quartet will play in New York, Boston, Chicago, Oakland and Santa Barbara before performing at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival on April 18. Atoms for Peace includes Flea on bass, Joey Waronker on drums, Mauro Refosco on percussion and Nigel Godrich on synths.

In an announcement on Radiohead’s website, Yorke wrote, “Ok so in April the other band that i got together to do the eraser and other stuff u know…Mauro, Flea, Me, Joey and Nigel is going back out to do some shows in the US ending with playing with Coachella. We had too much fun to just leave it there…It has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms for Peace. Hope you like the name.” Read More »

Though it’s been available since mid-October, Forro in the Dark celebrated the release of their new CD, “Light a Candle” at two New York City clubs, Nublu on Wednesday and the Highline Ballroom on Friday night. Consider it homecoming as well as events to mark their new music.

“It was like the cherry on the cake,” said Mauro Refosco, the band’s founder. “We just played in Europe, almost single every day without rest, then we went straight to the West Coast.” For the past five years, they’ve played Wednesdays at Nublu wherever they’re in New York. Last week, “it was packed,” Refosco said. “There were long lines to get in.”

Forró is a folk dance that originated in northeastern Brazil, and the percussion heavy folk music that accompanies it has co-opted the name. It’s said the word is derived from a Brazilian word meaning a party. And that was the atmosphere at the Highline Ballroom, as Forro in the Dark fans danced joyously during its set.

“You can’t help but move your hips,” Refosco said. “It’s the kind of music anyone can dance to. A good samba dancer is almost intimidating, or with salsa or rumba you just want to watch. But with forró, anyone can do it.” Read More »

After rumors began circulating that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke was releasing a new 12-inch vinyl single set for release in late September, the musician has confirmed the news: A double-A side featuring the tunes “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses” — co-written with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood — and “The Hollow Earth” — will be available on their website starting Sept. 21 as a vinyl single with a free download. “Horses” has apparently been kicking around since 2001, and originally intended as the parenthetical title for “Reckoner,” a reworked version of which was featured on “In Rainbows.” Given the timing of the release, many are speculating that “Horses” may also be the notoriously anti-corporate artist’s contribution to the upcoming soundtrack for “New Moon,” the second film in the “Twilight” franchise. (“New Moon” director Chris Weitz has previously said of the Yorke’s contribution: “Unless it’s sounds of him belching, I think I’ll put it in.”) Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.